TEEN DRAMA

New Zealand PM Promises Bill Lowering Voting Age to 16 After Discrimination Ruling

The country’s highest court ruled that denying the vote to people under 18 breached their human rights.

New Zealand’s Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern on Monday said her administration would draft legislation to lower the country’s voting age to 16 after a groundbreaking legal ruling said the current age of 18 was discriminatory. Earlier Monday, New Zealand’s Supreme Court sided with a two-year campaign brought by youth activist group Make It 16, which argued that young people should be allowed a say on issues like climate change which will disproportionately affect their lives. “This is history,” Make It 16 campaign co-director Caeden Tipler said. “The government and parliament cannot ignore such a clear legal and moral message. They must let us vote.” Despite the ruling, a change to the voting age would need to be approved by 75 percent of New Zealand’s parliament. Only a few countries currently allow voting at 16, including Brazil, Cuba, and Austria.